Words of Jesus Podcast - News of the Day

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

THE FAME of Jesus spread so widely that great numbers came to see him from all over the countryside. Seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain. There he sat down; and when his disciples came to him, he taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."Chapter 19: The Sermon on the Mount - Beatitudes (Part 1)Matthew 5:1-48, 6:1-34, 7:1-29

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Welcome once again to The Words of Jesus series. I'm your host, Don Harris. I'd love to hear from you if you're listening to this particular broadcast. I'd love to know where and when you're listening. Drop me an email, don at thinkredding.com. Just that simple, don at thinkredding.com.

We've started, as you remember the last show, we read through the Sermon on the Mount, one of my favorite pieces of scripture. I think that it's one of the most life-changing things. If a person would adopt the principles that are found there, spend a little time putting together a mental understanding of who it actually was that was speaking. Let me diverge here just a moment, because you'll find as we read different scriptures and such that I become perhaps overly intrigued, I don't know, but I become intrigued with not only what is being said,

but I've become intrigued with the person that said it and what was in their mind that made them say what they said or how they said it, when they said it. And I don't know, it gives you kind of an insight to, I think, in many cases, a proper insight of a proper functioning brain. I don't mean to be just arbitrarily derogatory about the human race, but friend, we have a lot of people that, you know, one of the reasons that we put together public schools in our country

is because we wanted people to have education enough, not sense enough, that's ugly, but we wanted to have education enough to read the Scriptures. It was that important to our founding fathers that people be able to read the Scriptures. And I think that although that's a very honorable thing unfortunately because of the wickedness of man and mankind in general

we have taken a lot of what we read in plain English, ink on paper and we kind of twist it and play with it and probably we shouldn't do that. Of course we shouldn't. So there's a lot of things that we read and we hear in there that because they're hard to understand, unscrupulous men have a tendency to use those kinds of things to their advantage

or to what they consider to be their advantage, whatever agenda they're putting forth. Well, you know Peter said this once about Paul. Paul was being criticized because of some of the things that he said. I remember Paul even mentioned some because Paul was trying to teach that the grace of God is full and it's nearly endless and it's so abundant that

when we sin there is plenty of grace there's plenty of power in our lives to not only overcome that sin, but to engage God's forgiveness on our behalf. And it was a beautiful thought of what he was teaching, but what people did with it was, so we're supposed to do evil that good may come? You know, and so people are so hateful.

So they're taking Paul's message. And as Peter was saying, Peter says, look, I know Paul. He's hard to understand. I get that. You know, he says many things that are very hard to understand. But wicked people take those things and rest them. W-R-E-S-T, rest. It means to take something and just twist it and contort it totally out of shape or put it under a huge amount of stress to stress something to bring about a message that really wasn't there. Peter says they do this all the time. Well, you know what, Peter? We're still

doing it today. We're still doing it today. It's amazing because we take some of the most beautiful things in the Bible and make them as ugly as sin. We take some of the things, the warnings in the Bible about particular sins and we ignore them. We take the insignificant things and we blow them out of proportion. And it's really a sad situation that the so-called conventional churches found themselves in today

to where their Bible is just a collection of sound bites. And so they memorize scriptures and they quote them all the time and they don't know what they mean or when they were written, who they were written to, and in many cases who even wrote them. And there's just so much that people don't know and they just fill in the gaps with whatever it takes to make the scriptures, allow them to continue to do what they've always done, and they still expect their life to get better.

Friend, please don't play these games. They're not working. You know, you are messing around with, you're sparring with Muhammad Ali or with Joe Louis or something. That's who you're sparring with. When you come against the word of God, which is not the book, but the power of that communication between God and you, when you're messing with that,

you need to have more respect than to say, yeah, I know that's what it says, but that's not what I believe. You know, those kind of things. They don't go anywhere. So many people have taken, well, for example, we're going to start in the Sermon on the Mount, and we all know that it begins with the Beatitudes. And people, there's a lot of people that have the

Beatitudes memorized. They know exactly, they're very familiar with people. If you say, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall, and people will automatically know, see God. Because they've heard this all their life. But that's a, and that's a good thought. It's a true thought. There's nothing wrong with that, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, that's good, let's make a little

let's make a little card and put that on the table, or paint a little picture and hang it on the wall, or I don't know, do with it whatever you want makes you feel good when you look at it when you're brushing your teeth I don't know,'s here's an idea how about putting it to the test how about becoming that person who is pure of heart so that you can see the kingdom of god look i'm not against per se i'm not against memorizing scripture but I'm saying that when it turns into that sing song kind of a cadence, kind of a repeat after me kind of a thing, man you just took one of the most

powerful things in the world which is the scriptures that were given to us poor, sinful, in time mankind and actually to us poor, sinful, in-time mankind and actually wasting them. We're just wasting what the Scriptures have come to do for us. He didn't want us to memorize Scripture. He didn't write all these things down for, now this is what I want you to do and when I want you to do it.

He was wanting us to take the scriptures and read them and see the example of the Son of God, the example of Jesus Christ, the example of the prophets, the example of the men and women of God throughout the scriptures and say, oh, I see who you want me to be. And this is a revelation between you and God. He doesn't tell you who he wants you to be, not in this book, but he does show you men and women that pleased him. And if you have a modicum of intelligence and just the smallest inclination to serve God, you're going to want to be like those people,

not mimic them, not necessarily, you know, be dittos of them or copies or clones. But we want within us that we want to be that kind of person brings me all the way back to what I was what I was saying before that one of my greatest fascinations in reading the scriptures is when not only what they said but what kind of a mind conceived of that idea what kind of a person would say would answer in that way why would he answer a question that's not been asked is it because something's left out of the scriptures or are we dealing with a perception that perhaps i don't have that they did have these are all things that we should think about not just reading the bible okay that's 20 minutes that's enough that's not reading your

bible it's not pulling out your little card and reading today's scripture, and today's New Testament scripture, and today's Old Testament scripture, and okay, so I've done my Bible reading. What you doing? Well, I'm following this chart so I can read through the Bible in a year. Okay, I guess that's commendable on some level. I guess it's better than watching Seinfeld reruns, but friend, the idea of what we're trying to do,

what we want to do, what we want to bring about is change in our life. We want to seize the grace of God. Remember what it was? John 1 tells us what the grace of God is. That's the power to become a son of God. Well, Jesus came to do that very thing. And in order to bring a person from one place

to another place, it's beneficial not only that they know where they're going and what the intention is and what I'm trying to accomplish here. I remember when dealing in making speeches and things like this and reading different books about it. I love the rule that they say, this is the unbreakable rule about speaking. When you stand in front of people, you tell them what you're going to tell them, and then you tell them, and then you tell them what you

told them. And this is pretty much how Jesus has conveyed this message from his Father to us. This is how we become a child of God. Not only did he tell us verbally how to do these things, but he lived it every day. He lived it so much that he gained a reputation among the religious that just baffled them all the time. They didn't understand him. I don't get it. What are you doing? I don't get it. I remember one time there was a

feast of, I think it was tabernacles. I think it was a feast of tabernacles. And a bunch of Pharisees were off in the corner and they were all talking about Jesus. He was always the news of the day. You know, what's going on with Jesus? And they said, what think ye? Will he come to the feast? And I'm thinking well any self-respecting Jew is going to come to the feast why would you wonder what Jesus is going to do

why would you wonder that see because people were on the edge of their seat all the time with him remember it says that they brought the woman that was caught in adultery they brought her to Jesus why did they bring her to Jesus? Why didn't they bring her to the Sanhedrin? Why didn't they dump her at the gate of the temple and just say, all right, folks, we've got an adulterer to stone here.

Why did they bring him to Jesus? The Bible says to see what he would do. To see what he would do. Why are they wondering what he would do? Because he was on this earth not obeying the scriptures, not keeping the commandments. What was he doing? He was obeying his father. And every time he did, it seemingly went crosswise with modern understanding of Christianity.

And what was amazing about it was him following his father perfectly really didn't look like that practice fit into the conventional religion of the day. Friend, that's what you're going to find. Don't forget, it was the church that crucified Jesus. It was the church that did that. It wasn't Roman soldiers. They were just merely a tool. It was the church that killed him. It was the church that gave him trouble. It was the

people who supposedly loved the Lord and had dedicated their life to him that hated him and wanted him dead, that paid for his murder and plotted against him. You have to understand where your enemies are. And look, I'm not telling you that you can just make a sweeping judgment that everybody involved in church is your enemy. That's not necessarily true. But you want to know where your opposition is going to come? When you start following the word of God within

yourself, you hear Jesus say, you know, well, we're not supposed to take up an offering in public. I'm not going to do that anymore. Well, that's what you think, Buster. He says not to pray in public. I'm not going to do that anymore. Yeah, that's what you think, Buster. Do you think the sinner is going to care? Do you think that the man in the world, the financier, the Wall Street tycoon, do you think the guy who is, you know, the plumber, the carpenter, the whatever, the average Joe out there, do you think they're going to care? That you're going to change your method of operation? Even your religious operation within the church?

Do you think they're going to care? I assure you, they won't. But there is a group of people who will, and they will persecute you, and they will pursue you. And as a matter of fact, it's prophesied that they will, in the end times, deliver you up to be killed, thinking that what? They're doing god's service so you know let's not forget where our enemies are and i think that one of the things that jesus taught when he came by his action by his words by his deeds i think that that's what that was one of the things that he taught us you want to see where your enemies are here see See if you see a sinner in this whole room that is going to have any trouble at all when I say to this person, thy sins be forgiven thee.

See if anybody in the room is going to have any trouble with this. If anybody has trouble with that, it'll be a religious person. As a matter of fact that's why he had to he had to say to the pharisee they said who is this man that forgives sins who can forgive sins but god alone see they're all upset with him and he says what do you think is easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or rise up and walk but that you might know that i have power on earth to forgive sins he say it to the sick of the palsy stand up and walk and he did and so who did he have to prove that to did he have to prove it to the man with the palsy well of course not did he have to prove it to all the sinners in the room of course not he had to prove it to the religious leadership so where's your trouble going

to come from when you decide to follow what j. So where's your trouble going to come from when you decide to follow what Jesus says? Where's your trouble going to come from? It's not that difficult of a question. We read the Sermon on the Mount, and we all know it starts with the Beatitudes. There have been people who have taken, because there's ten Beatitudes, they have made the assertion that when Jesus came he did away with the law and has reinstituted or replaced

those ten placeholders in religion, removed the ten commandments and put within it the uh beatitudes uh that's hogwash it's it's ridiculous i don't know why they don't understand that within the very same sermon that he's teaching these beatitudes that he says you need to know that not one jot or tittle not one little period comma question mark little parenthetical perins there's not a there's not an ink spot on the page of the law that is going to change until all be fulfilled and so did he did he change the law did he abolish the law? No, he didn't.

You're going to hear me say that he did. Don't think that I'm being a hypocrite. You just need to understand that there's certain definitions that we all need to come to. And we're going to try to come to those definitions. What law did he abolish? What law did he do away with? Because he did do away with certain laws. He did abolish certain things, but what did he abolish? What did he not abolish?

What endures forever? What's going to be around forever? We need to know all these things. Because if he tells us to obey the law within this sermon, we need to know what's he telling us to do. So there's a lot to understand. Don't worry about so much of this, because this is the wonderful thing about our Father.

As we read this and we hear the word of God, he ministers to us on a very, very personal basis. And exactly what you need, that is exactly what's going to be offered to you, friend. What you need is exactly what will be offered to you. And you just don't, you don't have to scratch around and search for it and trying to find some scripture or some magic potion or some magic formula. The truth is, is that he's going to speak to you and he's going to speak to you now.

Did you enjoy hearing the Sermon on the Mount? Was it new for you? Was it kind of that new and old feeling? It was kind of both? Yeah, that's the way this starts to occur because the words sound familiar, but the word underneath it, sometimes it cuts like a knife.

Sometimes it bathes our heart and warmth and with with love and caring and we feel very very secure and sometimes we think oh my goodness i've displeased my father so you kind of go back and forth but it's a wonderful ride we're on uh let me see if i can get this read in this particular show and then we'll continue taking these things piece by piece blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, as I was saying as as we were introducing this um here jesus is saying as he's giving us these attributes of a human being or at least of a person that is trying to serve the Lord. He's saying that these things will pay out in this way. This is the reward for doing these things. Now you say, oh, that's just works-oriented. Look, you need to quit being so protective of this faith only doctrine. Because it doesn't do anything but ingratiate you to your preacher or your pastor or your elders or give

you something to talk about while you sit around Denny's drinking coffee with your Christian brethren. It really doesn't do anything. It doesn't help anybody. You know a cocaine addict although we want him to have faith in Christ, if he does put faith in Christ, he'll stand up from there as a person who now has faith in Christ, but he's still a cocaine addict. We cannot ignore the physical or act like this is some kind of a magical ride and some ticket purchase that we've made. What happens to us is that as time goes by we become more of the mindset

that we are trying to establish doctrine more so than we are trying to discover doctrine. Do you know the difference in trying to prove something or using proof text and going to the scripture in order to discover something beautiful? I think that the idea of discovery is pretty much lost nowadays. As far as anything we're trying to discover is not something we're discovering

within the scriptures, but what we're trying to discover is what the seminaries have to say and what the theologians have to say and what the most famous books on the shelf have to say. And so I guess what I'm saying is that when you hear somebody say something that kind of goes against your idea of doctrine. When I say that these are rewards, the Beatitudes are talking about the rewards for doing certain things. Well, you know, it might flip on a little red light in the back of your head saying, oh, that's works, that's works. Sure, it's works. There's works involved in everything we do. Sometimes you have

to be, sometimes you have to push yourself to be pure in heart. Sometimes you have to strive to be the peacemaker. It'd be easier to make war than it would be to make peace. Well, there's a reward for being a peacemaker. There's a reward for loving the Lord with all of your heart. There's a reward for having a pure heart within you. And so these rewards are coupled to our actions. It has nothing to do with what you believe.

Of course, everything that you, every action that you take in order to make these beatitudes a part of your life are all done by faith. So, I mean, faith has its place and its purpose, but it will always, I mean, unless you're talking about outright raw belief in something you have no reason to believe. And there are things in Christianity that we must just simply believe without evidence. That's a fact. But when you're talking about our faith in Jesus Christ as our king, I don't know how you can believe he's the king of the whole world and not do what he says. As a matter of fact, that's in the Sermon on the

Mount. Why do you call me king? Why do you call me Lord? Why do you call me leader? Why do you call me boss? You're not doing what I say. I'm no different around here than the janitor. Well, you just appreciate my opinion about something? Look, this isn't my opinion. I'm here giving you the word of God to your soul. This is very, very important. Well, it was to him. Unfortunately, we've proven it's not very important to us.

More so we want to belong than be right. We've got a whole church full of people that believe this. How could it be wrong? There's millions of people that believe this. How can it be wrong? We're the largest denomination in the world. How could we be wrong? Well, that's a good question. I don't know how you did that. But we are wrong about some things. Anyway, as we go through these scriptures, I'm going to go through these point by point, and that's going that'll be an interesting study we're going to do that

throughout the entire sermon on the mount because it's just loaded with good solid doctrine and unfortunately many in many cases as we talk about these particular doctrines and and these kinds of things what you're going to to find is that we're doing the opposite in our churches, or we're not doing them at all, or we're doing things in our churches that aren't mentioned here at all. And you're going to see the huge disparity between conventional Christianity and what we've all understood to be the right way. Well, it might be right in somebody's sense, but what Jesus came to establish on the earth

was an individual relationship between him and his man. That's all the time we have for this time, and we're going to see you next time. You be sure to be here. I'd love to hear from you. Let me know who you are and where you're writing from and where you're listening. You can send me questions and comments too. Just email me at

don at thinkredinc.com. If you'd like to be a part of what we're doing by way of paper mail, that's simply done through P.O. Box 718, Pytown, New Mexico, 87827. All right, until next time, bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you